Tuesday, June 17, 2014

SCI FI SUMMER WRAP UP

Bobby Nash at the Author's Roundtable Panel at Sci Fi Summer Con 2014

Sci Fi Summer Program Cover
Art: Peter Cutler

I was a guest at Sci Fi Summer Con in Atlanta, Georgia on Saturday, June 14th, 2014. This show is the type referred to as a relaxi-con because it is very laid back and geared more toward hanging out and enjoying the company of other like-minded fandoms. Sci Fi Summer has a small dealer’s room, artist alley, game room, and panels. It’s a great place to hang out and have a relaxing weekend.

Sci Fi Summer is a 3 day con, but I was only able to attend on Saturday due to my workload. I rode to the event with my Earth Station One co-host, Mike Gordon on Saturday. Surprisingly, the traffic wasn’t bad… until we were about a mile or two from our exit when interstate 285 came to a halt. Good thing we knew a back way in. Once there, we checked in and made the rounds, saying hello to friends Java from The Forgotten Doctor, Robert and Karen Ray, Robert Jeffrey, Peter Cutler, Randy Bishop, Christina Barber, and Timothy Price.

Funny story. Kinda. On the way to the noon panel, we learned that the door was locked. No problem. I contacted the hotel management and we discovered that the one key (yes. They only had 1 key) to this particular conference room had accidentally gone home with someone and they couldn’t get the door open. Eventually, maintenance came with a plan to take the door down so we could get inside. I guess

Dealer's Room

opening another room wasn’t an option. I don’t know. They removed the pics, but the door was still jammed. That, of course, was the time the key returned so we had to wait for them to put the door back together so it could be unlocked and opened.

During the wait, I basically held the panel in the hallway, answering questions about writing, marketing, you name it. When the door was finally opened at 12:45, we moved it inside the room. We had a small audience, but they had some good questions. No one showed for the comic panel. Joined by Big In Japan author Timothy Price, we continued on with the author panel until 2 p.m. It was fun.

Robert Jeffrey

The rest of the day was spent walking around and chatting with folks, mostly hanging in artist alley. It was a fun, relaxing day spent with friends. You can’t get better than that.